Posted on 03/20/2015 6:11:17 PM PDT by Mrs. Don-o
WASHINGTON — St. Mary’s Cathedral in San Francisco is getting bad press this week over a sprinkler system it installed to keep homeless people from sleeping on church grounds.
People are outraged that a church would treat the poor so callously. But St. Mary’s isn’t alone. Many houses of worship all over the country face the question of how to keep safe, welcoming grounds while being compassionate to homeless neighbors sleeping on porches and in doorways.
Here’s what we tried at Mount Vernon Place United Methodist Church in Washington, DC.
A couple of months ago, we started a dialogue about how to move people off the porches of the church and assist them in moving on. Over the years, the protected and secluded porches had become sleeping quarters for a dozen or so folks, and it was now out of hand. People were using the grounds as bathroom facilities; others were leaving their belongings in plastic-covered 4-foot high mounds.
The conversation, held in a church committee meeting in January, was contentious. Some felt we had an obligation to offer a place to stay if our neighbors were homeless; others felt it was time to reclaim the building as a place that was clean and safe.
It took us hours to arrive at a decision, but we did. On March 1, no one would be allowed to stay on the porches or use the grounds for storage. We would hire security to help us enforce this decision. And here is what made our decision different: We would meet weekly with anyone who had lived on the porches to help them make the transition.
The good news was that the church has resources to support the changes we were imagining. If anyone wanted to go home, we had the money to buy a bus ticket. If folks needed something, we would do what we could to provide them with it.
So every Tuesday at 7 a.m., a small group of us met with our homeless neighbors for breakfast and discussion. We talked about what it would take to find permanent housing and kept track of commitments.
Six weeks in, when it was time for everyone to be moved to someplace else, we decided that we would continue the community we had formed beyond the March 1 deadline. At our meeting the first week of March, some miracles occurred:
Dominique came for the first time and told us he had a job if he could get a bike helmet. (Bob, a parishioner, left the meeting, went to his nearby home, and arrived back moments later with a bike helmet.)
Ivy told us she had had an interview for a job at Starbucks.
Stephen said he was going to interview later that morning for a restaurant job.
Several folks needed help with transportation, so after the meeting, Kris, a very committed and active parishioner, put more money on their church-provided transit cards.
After six weeks of support, no one is living on the porches anymore. It wasn’t easy, and we did have challenges. We did have to call the police when Eddie refused to leave his place on the porch. Having to call the police was the single sour note in the trajectory to reclaiming the porches and building an amazing community.
As a pastor, I have had to move people off property in the past. It has always felt punitive and mean. This time it felt different because we gave ample warning; We formed a team to get to know and support everyone individually, we consistently enforced the rules, and we used the resources of the church and the neighborhood to help.
I am convinced that those individuals who were sleeping on the church porches are better off now than they were in January, before we started.
There is a way to keep safe, clean grounds while helping our homeless neighbors — and it’s both easier and harder than installing sprinkler systems or putting up fences. It requires the investment of time and resources to build relationships, listen, and help. The community we formed still gathers at 7 a.m. each Tuesday.
I recently saw Dominique, with his bike helmet. He told me he got the job. Later that day I heard that Ivy got a full-time gig. Herbert and Sonia have a place to live. The miracles keep rolling in.
Linda Kaufman is an Episcopal priest and national movement manager for Zero: 2016, an initiative of Community Solutions. Community Solutions has its offices at Mount Vernon Place United Methodist Church.
According to the Church, the sprinklers were designed to wash away feces and needles left by the indigent. Sadly, they have been portrayed as being used to shoo away homeless.
It is good the priestess is helping, but she can do so without telling tales.
Your thoughts?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/3269439/posts?q=1&;page=21
From the previous article, it said there were no drains, and the filthy water just puddled on the pavement.
Churches of ALL denominations provide services for the poor. Finding a way to keep vagrants from urinating and deficating on church property is not cruel. These people could utilize church services properly, but instead choose to literally crap on them. Bottom line, it’s a biohazard.
Now if the (formerly) mainstream denominations - chief among them The Episcopal Church - would place themselves under the authority of Scripture and reject their unabashed promotion of the murder of unborn children.
Nice! Good work!
“Your thoughts?”
I still think the Kenyan anti-Christ’s drone policies have a place somehow in all of this.
Agree on all counts. The church my family and I have attended the last 17 years has a BENEVOLENCE COMITTEE for matters such as those described above. I personally am not involved in it, personally know a few of the folks who are. They truly do God's work in helping those who've exhausted all other resources and simply need a hand-up to get back on their feet.
Our benevolence committee has helped find people jobs, housing, get home to their families, helped folks with medical needs, assisted families during transition from losing their home to finding new, affordable housing, fixed more cars of Single Mom's or bought them better cars when necessary than I can count, helped Military Families of our church (and the community) meet their financial needs during long deployments, and the list goes on, and on, and on.
It's heartbreaking to see so many needs and people literally getting down to their absolute last resort of asking our benevolence committee for help. I have much admiration for the folks who sit on that committee, especially for the times they have to say NO to someone. Fortunately it's a rare occurrence, but some do try abusing the Church's good will.
Our benevolence committee never asks for repayment however some folks once back on their feet do try to pay back some or all of the gift they were given. Others we simply ask to help pay it forward when they can. It's really amazing to see how that works. So many folks that our benevolence committee has helped are the first to come forward when someone in the same position they were in needs help. Even if for nothing else to have a sympathetic ear and to be an example to others that they can make it through their trying time.
I think at the end of the day, that's how it's supposed to work and hopefully our Lord is proud.
I always put the safety of the children and widows over the wants of those with mental or drug issues.
This is how it should be - people dealing with people as they see fit, no government involvement whatsoever.
It would be advisable, however, if Churches didn’t spray cold water on the homeless in the middle of cold nights, as was done in SF. I would imagine that the reason that was done there was precisely because it was the Archibishop’s church and thus entirely political and cut off from the involvement of the parishoner’s personal involvement.
Whenever Important People get involved in things, they always seem to decide that violence and punishment are the answer. Maybe that’s why Jesus enacted humility, because that’s where compassion comes from.
well..hmm...first of all “having coffee and discussing” issues with these homeless people probably did a couple of things: Homeless people engaged because they were getting free stuff. I don’t want to be cynical but the problems for the homeless aren’t going to be solved in the long run by these types of tactics. Odds are that most of these who were supposedly helped are just sleeping on someone else’s doorsteps. What really drove them away from the church is the apparent news that they will call the police IF you don’t leave.
Shop Owner Installs Booby Trap Shower to Stop People Peeing In Alley
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnOmxR_qQ_Q
Nice success story. It sounds like most of the homeless needed just a little help and understanding to get back on their feet. Proverbs 15:1
Treating people in a humane way is the solution. Indeed Christ-like.
Sorry to be a bit cynical here. I salute the efforts of the church to positively encourage these people to re-enter productive society However their problem was ever so much worse before the neighborhood became gentrified and the majority of the homeless moved to other locales
The DC Government is a Socialist tide pool of corruption and inefficiency which runs through all of their welfare programs. The area churches do good work but have limited resources
There are many times where beggars and homeless are spoken about in the Bible - some lame - some insane (like the man who lived in the tombs). Jesus was right there. He fed the multitudes. He healed. He asked questions. That's Who I follow.
Our church is doing a lot of work with at-risk teens. Both starting programs in the public schools, and we have our own high school. Which just expanded to another church - different denomination. Cool stuff.
But they saw how these kids were just going back home to a family that used drugs and to neighborhood kids that used drugs. Or to the street because they didn’t want to be around their druggie parents in their effort to go to school and stay clean.
The dream of the church was to buy some older houses next to the church. We put together an ambitious plan - to buy all six homes (sixties era ramblers) on the small block and
create housing for the kids. I think the plan was to buy two at first, and then hope for the remaining to come up for sale over the next 8 years or something. But spaced far enough apart so that we could afford to buy them.
Well, three of them came up for sale around the same time. Gulp. But the church came through and lots of people came through and we bought them. And within the next year the other three came up on the market, and somehow folks came through again.
So now there are two boys homes and two girls homes (six kids each, and each home with a young married couple acting as parents.) The two other homes are being used for housing for a couple of our pastors, with the understanding that when the resources are available, those two will be converted for the kids.
The ultimate plan is to build a new housing facility on the block.
It is pretty amazing to hear the kid’s stories. Unbelievable how brave they are sometimes in telling them. Booze at 10, drugs at 11, prostituting themselves at 13, etc. And now they are clean, in school and getting decent grades. but most importantly that they know they are loved by God, and loved by others, and that they love God. Each and every one of their stories is a miracle.
Always amazes me when a church sets almost impossible goals that come to fruition. What a challenge your church took on. With God all things are possible. Love your story and what you are doing for these teens!
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